James Marusek

Good luck on your upcoming surgery.

Good luck on your upcoming surgery. Let us know if we can be of any help.

I had RNY surgery, whereas it appears that you had the sleeve. After surgery my taste buds changed. After a few months, I tried crab legs. I love the taste of crab legs prior to surgery, but they were tasteless after surgery.

Weight loss will vary by individual. Do not compare yourself with others and worry yourself sick. Just remember to focus on your daily Fluid, Protein and Vitamin requirements, do at least 30 minutes of walking each day and then let the magic happen. Your daily protein requirement is a combination of the amount of protein you obtain from meals combined with he amount of protein from supplements (Protein shakes and protein bars). In the beginning the amount of protein from meals is minuscule because your meal volume is very restrictive. As your meal volume increases, if you concentrate on consuming high protein meals, you will have the option of transitioning off your protein supplements and the calories these supplements contain. Over a year and a half, I went from 3 protein shakes a day, down to 2, down to 1 and eventually when I hit one cup per meal, I completely went off the protein shakes. Some drugs can interfere with your weight loss.

Fox New had an interesting story about removal of excess skin on their website today. It gave a first hand account of Diane Haro who lost 114 pounds through dieting, exercise and therapy. She then had surgery and removed around 10 pounds of extra skin. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/05/11/what-its-like-to-have-10-pounds-excess-skin-removed.html

I am 3 years post-op RNY gastric bypass. I take a number of Vitamins including multi-vitamins, B12, B1, calciums and D3. For a Multivitamin Flintstone chewable are recommended. Gummy vitamins are not recommended. Time release B12 capsules are not recommended. B12 should be sublingual and methylcobalamin. Calciums should be Calcium citrate. They are better absorbed. Generally your surgeon's office is well versed on the requirements and will provide you with a complete list of the requirements and available options. After surgery, I was unable to swallow medium to large pills. I had to either crush or split the pills. My ability to swallow returned after a couple months. The inability to swallow large capsules may limit their use early on. [Also since you mentioned prenatal vitamins. I should point out that this surgery is not recommended for those that are pregnant or about to become pregnant.]

Prior to surgery, I had severe acid reflux (GERD). I am now 3 years post-op RNY gastric bypass. After surgery, I lost my hunger for food. So it wasn't hard to drop the weight. It was not like dieting. I have not experienced any GERD after surgery. The hunger does eventually return but it is not as severe as pre-surgery. Mini-bypass is a different operation than RNY gastric bypass. So I do not know if the effects are the same. Perhaps someone who had a mini-bypass can join in and relate their experiences.

Good luck on your surgery.

I had RNY gastric bypass surgery because of my medical conditions. I had Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, severe acid reflux (GERD) and a few others. These all went away and stayed in remission after surgery. I am now 3 years post-op. I never really minded the weight. It was only that when I began to age, all these medical conditions started to arise. So I took care of these medical conditions and the weight was an added bonus. It is only logical that one would want to treat their medical conditions before they get out of hand.

Congratulations on your weight loss.

I had RNY gastric bypass surgery which is different than mini-bypass, so my answers may not be of much help. So let's see. You lost 20 pounds in 2 weeks, but then in the next week, you gained 2.2 pounds back. It is not unusual for individuals after weight loss surgery to hit stalls, even gaining a little weight during the journey. It is fairly common. The three most important elements after surgery are to meet your daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. food is really secondary because your body is converting stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight. It concerns me that you have stopped taking your protein shakes. My guidelines read a minimum of 75-90 grams of protein per day. 180 ml of milk is 6.3 ounces of milk which has 6 grams of protein since you are drinking 2 of these per day, that gives you 12 grams of protein 100 grams of meat gives you 26 grams of protein 1 egg provides 6 grams of protein. So overall you are consuming 44 grams of protein a day which is much less than your goal. If you fortify your milk by adding a 1/4 cup of dry milk to each glass of your liquid milk, this would add an additional 6 grams of protein per glass of milk. That would put your total up to 56 grams per day. Still a little on the low side. It will be hard to meet you daily protein requirement without using protein shakes. So I would recommend experimenting with the various forms out there. In general I hate protein shakes. But I had to consume them at least until I could reach my protein requirements from meals alone. You don't have to like protein shakes, only tolerate them. For me I found that I could tolerate Muscle Milk Light (vanilla Cream) powder blended with Water and with a half a banana blended in. So that is what I used.

I am 3 years post-op RNY surgery. I have not developed a taste for wine or any alcohol. So it wasn't hard for me to give it up. Once in a while pre-surgery I would have a glass of wine or spirits. I liked the sweet wines (especially the fruity wines), more than the dry wines. From my experience, I would say that after the first year, it is probably O.K. if you have a half a glass of wine once or twice a month.

I am 3 years post-op RNY gastric bypass surgery. This is my approach in the "Maintenance phase". http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

A recent study out of Denmark shows some strange results on BMI and mortality. Led by Dr. Shoalb Afzal from Copenhagen University and the Copenhagen University Hospital, a team of researchers analyzed data from three cohorts of the general Danish population. There were nearly 14,000 people from the Copenhagen City Heart Study (1976-78), another 9,500 from that study in 1991-94, and over 97,000 from the Copenhagen General Population Study in 2003-2013. All the participants were followed from their first enrollment in their respective study until November, 2014, or until they emigrated or died. Typically the lowest risk of mortality is associated with a BMI in the lower to mid 20s. In the earliest Danish cohort, that nadir was 23.7. In the next one (1991-94) it was 24.6, and 27.0 for the last one. What could the progression in the nadir of the BMI vs. Mortality curve mean? http://acsh.org/news/2016/05/16/the-case-of-the-creeping-bmi/ From my perspective, it appears to show that you do not want to be in the underweight category (especially if you are age 50 and male. You do not even want to be in the low side or mid range of the healthy category. Mortality range appears to be a little high there also. You want to be on the high side of healthy BMI to the overweight category. Mortality for males age 50 appears to be lowest here. You don't want to be in the obese or above category. You definitely don't want to be a smoker. This is important information. Goal weight is an arbitrary number that we use after Weight Loss Surgery to set a goal. But it is somewhat arbitrary. After surgery, I hit my goal and then continued to drop the weight. Eventually my body found a weight it liked and that is where I landed. Then over time I lost a little more weight and decided to reanalyze my goal. I determined that I would like to be on the high side of normal (healthy) weight near a BMI of 24.2 (for me that was 150 pounds). In the old days, it was important to have a little extra fat on the body, so that when one became seriously ill or injured, this bit of extra fat was in storage to help the body through the recovery process. This study seems to support that decision. At least if I was a Dane.

Congratulations.

Constipation can be quite terrible after bariatric surgery. It can be a sign that you are not drinking enough fluids. Sometimes if you go for several days without a bowel movement, the only way to start up the process again is to use a glycerin suppository inserted up your rectum. But if you use these stay close to the bathroom. Another point is if you have just returned from surgery, it is a good idea to take a probiotic for a few days. Generally in the hospital, you are administered an antibiotic which kills not only the bad bacteria but also the good bacteria in your gut. Therefore you need to establish the colonies of good bacteria again. That is where Probiotics come into play.

I found that belts served a good function during this transition. Whenever the belts got too large, I punched new holes in them and cut off the ends.

If you have severe acid reflux (GERD) then focus on RNY gastric bypass surgery. The sleeve will only make this condition worse. One of the gentlemen in our bariatric support group meetings had a lapland that eroded into his stomach. His stomach was about to rupture. He had a RNY surgery and was well pleased with the surgery and his weight loss. I think he lost close to 200 pounds. Because the band had caused scaring, his pouch was a little smaller than most patients and as a result he was slightly more restricted on the amount of food he could consume in one meal. But he was fine with that.

Your taste of foods do change as time goes on. The further you are out, the more your taste revert back to normal. I am 3 years post-op RNY surgery. I found that mixing food groups together restored some of my taste. So I became a fan of chili and Soups.

I am 3 years post-op RNY and have experienced dumping syndrome. It is not all bad. It is a teaching tool. Once you go thru dumping once, you can quickly recognize the pre-triggers, such as sneezing, mucous accumulation, hiccups, changing taste in foods that warn you to stop eating immediately and avoid the problem in the future.

Good luck and remember - walk, walk, walk.

Congratulations and good luck on your upcoming surgery. Let us know if we can be of any help.

At times there can be a lot of stress associated with weight loss (especially when dealing with the health insurance companies or from the comments from co-workers). One way to relieve that stress is grown-up coloring books. Experts speculate that the rhythmic repetition of coloring helps tune out the outside world, which in fact releases stress. But, they quickly note, the moment of zen is not meant to replace actual therapy when needed, because of the relationship that’s established between a therapist and the patient. The American Art Therapy is behind the craze, too, releasing a statement saying it supports the use of adult-coloring books for “pleasure and self care.” http://acsh.org/news/2016/04/16/feeling-stressed-out-adult-coloring-books-can-help/

Congratulations on your weight loss thus far. I am 3 years post-op RNY gastric bypass surgery. This is my approach to the Maintenance phase. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

I am 3 years post-op RNY gastric bypass surgery. After surgery you will pass a little more gas than normal and your breath can also smell foul. But I wouldn't equate this with a horror story. This will ease the further you are post-op. Generally it might take about 6 months for you to reach your happy state when most of the problems from surgery have dissolved away.